Page 4 of The Big Dip in Crumbleton
Scarlett grinned. ‘Dramatically is one word for it.’
‘Where are we?’ said Lou, hauling herself upright and rubbing her face.
‘Middle of nowhere,’ Scarlett replied. ‘Lost in the marshes, I think.’
Lou peered through the window. ‘Ah, the scenic route! Brian’s showing off the local delights.’
‘Yes, pitch blackness,’ chuckled Scarlett. ‘Truly spectacular.’
‘Cheer up!’ said Lou, nudging her playfully. ‘This weekend is exactly what you need after everything.’
Scarlett sighed. This was the trouble with old friends – they had a horrible habit of being right. The past month had been nothing short of a nightmare, and she really did need a bit of fun and adventure to take her mind off things.
After five years of dedication, the friendly family firm she’d worked for in Bath had been swallowed whole in a merger with a much bigger company. Suddenly, Scarlett found herself with nothing to show for her hard work other than a puny redundancy package and the hollow assurance that it “wasn’t personal.”
But… it feltintenselypersonal. She knew it wasn’t exactly fashionable to admit it, but she’d loved her job, and she’d loved her colleagues. Now? It was all gone.
‘You’re brooding again,’ said Lou.
‘I’mnotbrooding,’ said Scarlett.
‘Course not. That’s your happy face.’
Scarlett dug her elbow into her friend’s ribs, but she couldn’t help but smile. This was exactly why she’d decided to visit Lou in the first place – she wasn’t the kind of friend who’d let her mope for too long. Plus, the woman was incorrigible. She’d upended her own life and had come out on top, and now she was living the dream.
Tagging along with Lou and the rest of the Chilly Dippers on their trip across the country hadn’t been part of Scarlett’s original plan, but after a week in Seabury, she wasn’t ready to head back to Bath just yet. A spare seat on the minibus and Lou’s ever-bouncy enthusiasm had convinced her to join them.
The problem was, Scarlett wasn’t aspur-of-the-moment-decisionkind of girl. She might have agreed to her friend’s hair-brained plan, but she couldn’t help the waves of anxiety that kept accosting her.
‘It’ll be fun,’ Lou insisted. ‘I promise. And anyway, you said yourself – you want to try new things.’
Scarlett nodded, the nerves in the pit of her stomach squirming again. It was a lot easier to make declarations like that over a glass of bubbly in her friend’s cosy living room than actually following through.
‘I’m just not much of a sea swimmer,’ she said in a low voice. ‘I’m more of aheated-indoor-pool-with-lane-markerskind of girl.’
‘Well, it’s not too late to back out,’ said Lou. ‘You could just watch from the beach.’
‘You don’t think anyone would judge?’ said Scarlett.
‘Oh, we’dalljudge!’ chuckled Lou. ‘Thoroughly.’
‘Can’t say I’d blame you,’ Scarlett sighed. ‘I’d judge myself, too. Anyway, there’s no way I’m backing out now. I need to stop playing it safe all the time.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with liking safe,’ said Lou, her voice turning more gentle. ‘You like order. You’re a numbers girl. That’s your superpower.’
‘I miss my spreadsheets,’ she confessed in a whisper.
Lou squeezed her hand. ‘I know you do. But maybe there’s more to life than Excel?’
‘Blasphemy!’
Lou sniggered.
‘Not long now!’ called Brian Singer from the driver’s seat, his cheerful voice cutting across their quiet conversation.
Brian had driven all the way from Crumbleton to Seabury to pick them up. Apparently, he was a taxi driver by trade, but he volunteered to help out with The Big Dip every year.
For the first couple of hours, he’d kept them all entertained with local gossip and boisterous sing-alongs. He seemed like a genuinely nice man, if somewhat exhaustingly enthusiastic about his hometown.
